Honeybees have five eyes. You would think that this would enable them to see with a greater level of clarity than other animals, but that isn’t the case—or not exactly. Bees have two large eyes on the sides of their heads and three additional, simpler eyes in the center of their heads to help with flight navigation. However, bees see very few colors.
Experts are not entirely in agreement as to which colors are perceived but the consensus is that these lie mostly within the blue-green color spectrum with some oranges and yellows. This is the light spectrum of 300–650 nanometers—humans see the wavelengths of 400–800 nanometers—and excludes the color red entirely. Bees probably see red as black. The incredibly adaptive feature that helps bees make up for this smaller range? They can see ultraviolet light, which is invisible to humans. Bees use this spectrum, which is dense at the center of flowers, to guide them to their targets. If deprived of ultraviolet light frequencies, bees lose all interest in foraging unless forced to by hunger.